Monday, December 23, 2013

It's Christmas week! I'm so excited to be here today sharing with you a couple of cards that feature our stunning Stardream Metallic Cardstock. From the moment I laid eyes on this cardstock, I was in love. Seriously stunning and fabulous way to take simple cards to the next level!

You can see the shimmer on both of these cards - don't you just love the way they sparkle!?!

I cut the base for this card from the Sapphire Stardream Metallic Cardstock (totally my favorite of all of them!) I used my Silhouette Cameo and then backed the front with CTI Glama White Marble Translucentpaper. It reminded me of snow with the marble look it has...making it perfect for a snowflake card! You may have noticed that several of us have been using the Silhouette Cameo to do our projects recently. I was stunned at how beautifully it cut thru this cardstock! I just set it to double cut my card and it came out nice and crisp. A few simple stickers, gems, and washi tape are the final touches.

This card is way more simple than it first appears. The base is created with more Crystal Stardream Metallic Cardstock. I then used a snowflake punch and punched out Antique Gold Stardream Metallic Paper. I created a row of snowflakes along the bottom of the card and worked up from there - connecting limbs of the snowflakes. Adhering these was nice and easy - I used a mini glue dot in the center of each snowflake. Once I reached a height I was satisfied with I topped them with a ribbon border. A doily and letter stickers polish the card off and create the trendy combination of silver, gold, and white.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Happy Week Before Christmas everyone! It's Linda McClain again with a really simple but elegant project for you.

We have a crazy number of traditions in our household. One is giving each other silly names. Who knows why (there's never any reason to our madness), but my daughter, Caitlin (a.k.a. "Kitty Kate" and "Baby Girl"), nicknamed her dad "Peepster" years ago.

Another tradition is my husband's annual batch of caramel popcorn. After making it for Christmas for 30 years he's perfected it to a delicious, mouth-watering, highly sought after delicacy.

This year we dressed up his gourmet popcorn with beautiful jars from Williams-Sonoma and a custom tag.

Caitlin scanned her fun calligraphy to digitize it and tweak it in Adobe Illustrator. We knew this woodgrain embossed paper would be the perfect gourmet touch (Nature Gmund Savana Paper), but we didn't know how well her design would print onto the paper.

Did you know Cutcardstock.com provides the printer compatibility for each paper it sells? And, just as advertised, Caitlin's tag design printed perfectly from our laser printer onto the embossed paper.

The rest was easy. We just cut out her tag with a circle die cut, added a gold eyelet, and tied the tag on with baker's twine. The biggest challenge was just refraining from eating all the popcorn before we could get it into the jars. (Oh, it's so yummy when it's still warm, right out of the oven.)

We have a little gift for all of you who like to give delicious home baked gifts during the holidays. Just click here for a free download of a .jpg file to create your own gift tags. With the file you can print 10 tags.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Can you believe there is just NINE days until Christmas? It seems like the time is just flying by! Jamie with you today and like most of you I have been busy shopping and wrapping!

I love to have a variety of boxes and bags ready for the Holidays to hide gifts in so that they aren't obvious as to what is in them…yes, I am one of those that will wrap the smallest present in the largest box (or boxes!) just to keep the kids guessing! This year I created over-sized Pillow Boxes to help me conceal gifts and I used Basis Card Stock and Stardream Metallic Card Stock to make them beautiful!

If you haven't tried the Stardream Metallic Card Stock, you have no idea what you are missing. This card stock is 105# cover weight and the shimmer it gives to every project is just so elegant.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Just 2 weeks until Christmas, and I'm in full holiday mode! Did you *LOVE* our Holiday Countdown series? I'm thrilled to be a part of such an amazing group of talented artists, and I loved seeing the guest designers join us.
Today I have a holiday card to share with you and it features Stardream Metallic cardstock which is on sale this month. It's the perfect time to stock up!

I stamped the cute little bird on Savoy Natural White cardstock and colored it in with a couple shades of red from my copics. I gave him some dimension with the small foam squares.

I decided to emboss the sentiment too, but this time using black embossing powder.

I added a bit of red baker's twine to add some interest, and rounded the bottom corners. I used the 1" glue lines adhesive -- it works like a champ on the metallic cardstock, even when paired up with the textured woodgrain cardstock!